Lori J. Paul, AACP

I am a Certified California Paralegal with over 13 years experience in Family Law and Civil Litigation. I love the legal field. I am passionate about learning new and exciting technology, whether for the law office or for my own personal use. My goal with this blog is to provide information and humor to families regarding Family Law matters that will help them understand the legal process as it relates to divorce, custody, visitation and support.

Sign Up for Email Updates!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Posts Tagged ‘Alimony’

Just when you thought you were paying more in spousal support than you thought was fair, along comes this story from Australia. As a high-earning professional, the husband took home almost $2 million, including a six-figure bonus, in the last year. After their split he moved out of the $2.7 million family home and into another property worth more than $1.1 million, which he bought without his wife’s knowledge before their separation. Hmm, here we call that a fiduciary duty to disclose, but I digress. It was intended as an investment property if the marriage lasted; instead, he lived there with his children as their primary care-giver.

His former wife hoped to earn up to $50,000 annually working in community services and wanted him to support her financially for two years while she obtained her qualifications. He objected, arguing that she was employable and could return to her former career as a legal secretary or personal assistant, earning up to $75,000 annually. Her choice of occupation was effectively ”a luxury she cannot afford and which would be at his cost”, he said.

But Justice Fowler noted that the woman ”says she has had enough of the law and lawyers for the time being”. She told the court the distress of the marriage breakdown and subsequent litigation have made her averse to ”having anything further to do with employment in the legal profession”. More than two years after the couple separated, after costly proceedings in the Family Court, a judge made parenting orders for the care of their children.” Given the history of this matter and its attendant costs, one can understand from her point of view that she would wish to distance herself from that profession,” Justice Fowler said. Her decision not to pursue her former career was not unreasonable, he said, and he ordered the husband to pay her $1000 a week for two years while she retrained.

Now, I agree that the husband makes great money and the wife is probably entitled to spousal support, although there is no indication of how long the marriage was, but I think this is a little over the top. At $4,000 a month for 2 years, she will receive $96,000 in spousal support and will get to go back to school to boot. So, next time you write that spousal support check, just think, it could be worse.

Assembly Bill 2674 was passed into law on July 16, 2010. In case you don’t know what Assembly Bill 2674 is about, AB 2674 is based upon the personal experience of Detective John Pomroy of the Pomona Police Department who was forced to turn over part of his CalPERS retirement and deferred compensation proceeds to his former wife convicted of soliciting his murder. Detective Pomroy sought a legislative remedy so that no one else would suffer this injustice.

“This bill updates our laws to close a loophole to ensure that community property claims are forfeited if one spouse tries to destroy the community through the solicitation of a third party to murder the other spouse,” said Assemblymember Marty Block, who wrote this bill.

Under existing law, when a spouse is convicted of attempting to murder their spouse, the victimized spouse is entitled to an award of 100% of the community property interest in the retirement and pension benefits. The victimized spouse is also entitled to prohibit any temporary or permanent award for spousal support, medical, life or other insurance benefits or payments to the convicted spouse as well and is entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs.

While this doesn’t help John Pomroy, he acknowledged in an April interview that “maybe some poor sap in the future won’t have to go through this.”

Like this:

An upper-crust Long Island housewife accused of hiring a hit man to off her hubby lamented she could only afford to maim him — but then was thrilled to learn she could whack him at a bargain-basement price of just $20,000, authorities said yesterday.

That’s the stone-cold, cost-calculating mentality of sick soccer mom Susan Williams, 43, who allegedly hired an undercover cop this week to whack her husband of 21 years. She was held yesterday on $1 million bail.

Allegedly, Ms. Williams managed to turn the couple’s four children, ages 19-11, against their father. She alleged domestic violence during the marriage, not only against her but the children. She also alleged that her husband forced her to have deviate sex. Seems Ms. Williams also admitted having an affair with her boss during the marriage and allegedly stole marital assets. According to the husband, Peter Williams, a fence business owner, Ms. Williams lied about the couple’s finances during the marriage and received an order for spousal support and child support of $11,000 a month. Mr. William’s admits that he stopped paying the support to his ex because he simply couldn’t afford to pay it. Mr. Williams is now working on trying to get custody of the parties’ children while Ms. Williams sits in jail with the $1 million bail.